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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what color can a Polish painter Jakob meets not paint?

2. When does Jakob finish writing his life's stories?

3. What does Jakob experience when he first wakes in Michaela's bed?

4. What opinion does Jakob offer on the issue about which Naomi and Ben are fighting?

5. Why can't Ben's father retire when he is of age?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Jakob's work in Greece?

2. What does Michaela say about her parents and the pioneer museum?

3. How does Ben find Jakob's study?

4. What is the parable of the rabbi traveling incognito and what is the moral of the parable?

5. What does Jakob think about as far as the Nazis' effort to dehumanize the Jews?

6. What does Ben find in Jakob's study?

7. What is Salonika and how is it related to Jakob and Michaela?

8. How does being in Jakob's house affect Ben?

9. How does Jakob relate a theory by Einstein to the Holocaust?

10. What impact does being in Idhra have on Jakob?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many novels, and perhaps a majority, of novels ends on a happy note. Discuss the following:

1. Why do you think many (most?) people want what they perceive as a happy or good ending to a novel? Explain your opinion. Do you? Why or why not?

2. What are three reasons to read fiction? Discuss each one in light of "Fugitive Pieces" and whether or not it fulfills all three, two or one of the reasons you mention. Give examples as to why "Fugitive Pieces" is or is not successful in fulfilling the reasons you discuss.

3. Do you think reading solely for entertainment is as good a reason to read as any other? Why or why not? Can any work of fiction or non-fiction, no matter how poorly written, enlighten, teach, stimulate thought? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

History and memory share time and space and every moment is really two moments. Examples are how the Nazis and the Lublin scholars view the destruction of holy books, how Nazis and mothers in Lódz react to the soldiers "catching" infants on their bayonets, and how a woman in Birkenau carries a photograph of her husband and daughter under her tongue in order not to be separated from them. Jakob cannot resist reading the horrors of history because he needs to know where Bella actually dies.

1. Explain your ideas as to why history and memory might be two different moments. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

2. Explain the type of internal change must occur in a soldier in order for a decent or ordinary person to become the type of individual who would toss an infant on his bayonet. Include what people in society today might learn from such a transformation. Use examples from your own life and the text to support your answer.

3. Explain, in depth, how Jakob reading of the Holocaust horrors is related to Jakob not knowing what happened to his sister. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in "Fugitive Pieces".

2. Trace and analyze one major theme of the book. How is the theme represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

3. Trace and analyze two secondary themes of "Fugitive Pieces". How are the themes represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

(see the answer keys)

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